Box-Office Benjamin$: Angels & Demons Barely Survives Kirk & Spock

Looks like lifetime ban from the Vatican and being a sequel-prequel to controversial The Da Vinci Code was enough to entice movie-goers to see Angels & Demons. Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of people that saw it. In fact it was #1 at the box-office this weekend with a $48 million debut. However, if you look at it in context, Tom Hanks second outing as Professor Langdon is a huge disappointment. The Da Vinci Code was released May 19, 2006 and grossed $77 million its opening weekend; that’s almost $30 million more than the prequel-sequel that’s had years of hype and controversy.

Another thing that didn’t help Ron Howard’s movie is Star Trek. The best film of the summer thus far came back swinging in it’s second weekend, nipping at Hanks’ heels and taking in an impressive $43 million for 2nd place. That’s only a 43% drop, helping it’s domestic gross reach an outstanding $147 million domestically in just two weeks. The epic, positive word-of-mouth is what I think propelled Star Trek to such solid numbers. People were hesitant at first because of the nerd factor, but then when all their friends told them how great it was, they had to check it out for themselves. Wolverine came out a week prior to Star Trek and only has $150 million to it’s name and keeps on spiking. At this pace, Trek has a legitimate shot of breaking $250 million this summer. Not if Christian Bale has anything to say about it though, as Terminator Salvation opens in two days. It’ll be interesting to see if Trek can pull out another second place, as Demons is sure to swan-dive next weekend with it’s bad reviews and negative word-of-mouth, Wolverine-style.

Here’s a breakdown of the rest of the Top 5 at the Box-Office this weekend.

CHAMP: Angels & Demons $48 million
2) Star Trek $43 million
3) X-Men Origins: Wolverine $14.8 million
4) Ghost of Girlfriends Past $6.9 million
5) Obsessed $4.6 million

Source: Box-Office Mojo

What Do You Think? Discuss.